Edita Food Industries Reports 1Q2019 Earnings

Edita Food Industries S.A.E. (EFID.CA on the Egyptian Exchange & EFIDq.L on the London Stock Exchange), a leader in the Egyptian packaged snack food market, announced today its results for the quarter ended 31 March 2019, reporting revenues of EGP 982.2 million, up 10.8% y-o-y. Net profit for 1Q2019 recorded a significant 87.8% y-o-y increase to EGP 114.3 million, with a net profit margin of 11.6% versus 6.9% in the comparable quarter last year.

Commenting on the quarter’s performance, Edita Chairman and Managing Director Eng. Hani Berzi said: “I am very pleased with our results for the first quarter of the year which carry forward our growth momentum and continue to reflect the merits of our strategy. Top-line growth was both volume- and price-driven, while increased stability in commodity and raw material prices has allowed us to maintain tight cost-control measures and extract higher value from sales. Edita recorded margin expansion across all our segments, successfully bringing our overall gross margin up by three percentage points, while our bottom-line has almost doubled during the quarter.”

“On a segment basis, I am particularly pleased with the performance of our wafers and rusks segments, which continue to grow their contribution to Edita’s total revenues and hold significant growth potential going forward,” Berzi added.

Edita’s cake segment continued to constitute the largest share of total revenues in 1Q2019 at 46.4%, followed by the croissant segment with a 28.3% share. Edita’s rusks and wafers segments recorded a notable expansion during the quarter, with rusks’ share growing to 10.7% versus 7.9% in 1Q2018, while the wafers segment constituted 9.9% in 1Q2019 compared to 7.7% in the previous year. Finally Edita’s candy segment constituted a 4.4% share of total revenues in 1Q2019.

On a regional front, Edita’s gross exports were up 33.8% y-o-y to EGP 85.7 million in 1Q2019, constituting an 8.7% share of total gross revenues versus 7.2% in 1Q2018. The growth in export sales is in line with the company’s strategy to pursue regional expansion as a key pillar of long-term growth.

“Our strategy in 2019 will continue to focus on portfolio optimization and extracting cost efficiencies to support profitability, while simultaneously pursing long-term strategic initiatives that will drive the next growth and value creation phase. We have recently installed and commissioned a new candy line and launched a line of juice-filled stick candies, BonBon, under our existing Mimix brand as we seek to strengthen our position in this fast-growing market. Management is also exploring other expansion opportunities in existing and new markets to take full advantage of the snack food market’s solid fundamentals and to leverage Edita’s strong brand equity and production and distribution capabilities.”

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